Being busy has become almost a point of pride. Ask people how they are doing, and you will hear “I’m busy” first of all. It might be true sometimes. The life can truly become hard to handle. Responsibilities at work, studies, in the family, and personal troubles take much of our time.

Sometimes being busy is only a convenient way to not be bothered with something else.

We keep ourselves busy because when we are still, we start thinking. We open our cell phone, watch something, answer to the messages, make some arrangements, or just come up with something more to do. While there is something going on, we do not need to sit and contemplate.

What is weird about this is that pretending to be busy feels productive even when you have not done anything significant. Being busy does not equal to living your life with purpose.

Sometimes we are not really busy. We are just distracted.

And perhaps we have gotten used to this so much that we do not notice any more.

There is also a distinction between being busy and being busy all the time. When every spare moment makes us uncomfortable, we begin to fill them up unconsciously. Waiting for just a couple of minutes might drive us to take out our phone. Spending an evening quietly might be seen as unproductive only because there is no activity going on.

But not every spare moment needs to be filled.

Sitting down, thinking, resting, and engaging in some actions simply because we find pleasure in them does not mean that we are lazy. Our minds also require periods of inactivity. Sometimes it is the best thing we could possibly do – to quit deceiving ourselves with the thought that every moment has to be productive.

Being busy sometimes is inevitable, but being busy is not an identity.

Perhaps, we should stop asking ourselves “How busy am I?” and start wondering “What am I doing with my life?”

Because in the end, filling up our schedules with activities is useless when we spend most of our time escaping ourselves.